Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Hell
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of a polar bear used as a rug; but the gaping
jaws, the threatening teeth, the sparkling eyes
irritate me. Why should this creature lie just
now, just there? Without taking off my clothes,
I lie down on the bed, determined to wait for
the fateful hour—two o’clock.
While I am reading, midnight approaches.
One o’clock strikes, and the whole house is
wrapped in slumber. At last two o’clock
strikes! Nothing happens. Then in a dare-devil
spirit, or perhaps only with the intention
of making a physical experiment, I rise, open
both windows, and light two candles. Then I
sit at the table behind them, expose myself with
bared breast as a mark, and challenge the unknown:
“Attack, if you dare!”
Then I feel, at first only faintly, something
like an inrush of electric fluid. I look at my
compass, but it shows no sign of wavering. It
is not electricity then. But the tension
increases; my heart beats violently; I offer
resistance, but as if by a flash of lightning my body
is charged with a fluid which chokes me and
depletes my blood. I rush down the stairs to
the room on the ground-floor, where they have
made up for me a provisional bed in case of
necessity. There I lie for five minutes and
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